Horror adventure games

January 15th, 2013, 16:39

Just wondering if anyone can recommend any good horror adventure games. I started Dark Fall: Lost Souls a little while ago, but I'm having a hard time getting into it. I think the slow, awkward navigation's putting me off too much to really enjoy it. I've been thinking of jumping into some of the really old school ones, but thought I'd see what people suggest before I pick something.

Age isn't a real concern, but, please, no survival horror games. They always feel so gamey and tedious that any horror is from the gameplay, not the game.

Black Mirror is said to be very, very good.
Gray Matter (by Jane Jensen) is not really about horror, but is isn't light, either.
Edit : Just found out that Gray Matter is seemingly at "Green Light" at Steam. - which means that it isn't available through Steam yet. I don't know about GOG.

--  Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius  and a lot of courage  to move in the opposite direction. (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Amnesia: The Dark Descent has gotten favorable reviews I think. I bought it and couldn't really get into it, though, too many repeated items (e.g. books you could examine) and repeated textures in the level kind of made it seem generic.

It was spooky though save for the blood in the beginning level of the game rendering as more of a pink.

-- Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind. - John F Kennedy
An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind. - Mahatma Gandhi
The world is my country. To do good is my religion. My mind is my own church. This simple creed is all we need to enjoy peace on earth. - Thomas Paine

Not horror, but : If you have never played "Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis", then please do so ! It has imho one of the best stories I've ever seen in an adventure game !

--  Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius  and a lot of courage  to move in the opposite direction. (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

There are few interesting horror adventures that came out this year.
Lucius is bit strange game but interesting.I know you said not survival horror but I can't not to recommend Lone survivor and Misamata(really about survival not action horror which is usually labeled as "survival horror").All 3 of those game are more or less niche games so you might want to check more than one review to see if it fits you especially for Lucius which some people find disturbing.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Bah you can keep your old-fart point & click adventures. Dead Space 3 is less than 3 weeks away.

Bah! Bah, I say!

I tried the first one, but the ancient save point system and the fact that some guy's back took up most of the screen made it far too gamey to be worth it. It completely killed the horror aspect of it for me.

I did look at Realms of the Haunting, but I have to admit the FMV screenshots turned me off. That stuff has not aged very well.

White Chamber looks interesting, but I don't know if I can get past the animeness. I'll probably give it a try, though.

Originally Posted by Menigal
I did look at Realms of the Haunting, but I have to admit the FMV screenshots turned me off. That stuff has not aged very well.

Sacrilege ! The acting is pretty solid, even for this milennium's standards. And DOSBox likes the game. Perhaps you should check out one of the 'Let's play' vids on Youtube (like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mmo_hYdhIU ) and then decide if you can't stomach it … just give this game a chance.

Here's the link to a Zork: Nemesis 'Let's play': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z09_X_NlZoE
Not to be confused with Nemesis the Wizardry Adventure which was kind of horrible as well, but in a different way. You needed a can of Raid to be able to play it because of the bugs, plus it was Nintendo hard.

Originally Posted by Menigal
I tried the first one, but the ancient save point system and the fact that some guy's back took up most of the screen made it far too gamey to be worth it. It completely killed the horror aspect of it for me..

Your loss. The save point system works perfectly for that type of game though. Being able to save anytime anywhere would be detrimental to the experience the same way it would be in a game like Dark Souls.

It does take a certain amount of twitch skills to enjoy though, and I can understand if that's the turn-off. Personally, I'm the exact opposite. I get very little thrill from the slower paced adventure-type horror games.

Many good and great ones are already mentioned, I'll add Still Life 1&2.
You may think it's a crime series but it's not. Seen a movie Saw? Not sequels… The first one. I promise you Saw experience in those two. Make sure you play them both as the story is not over with the first one!

And because JDR says old-farts whatnot… I know one nonpointclick he didn't (dare) to play.
FPS horror adventure is (Clive Barker's) Undying. I honestly despise FPS genre, and this game also has it's annoying part (a certain episode "above" tends to be boring as it's too long, the rest of the game is not like that), but I'm highly recommending it. Please, play it during the night, volume maxed and lights turned off. Do you dare?

Well, Undying was the only game that came close to Realms of the Haunting in terms of haunted house atmosphere. Both are often mentioned in one and the same article/review, so yes, I second Joxer's recommendation.

You talk about the Oneiros part of Undying? It's somewhat similar to RotH's Tower. The most annoying part of RotH, on the other hand, was the search for brains in chapter 13 or so I think.